Women of Invention is a Newscenter series of profiles of women at the University who hold international patents. More than half of the University’s patent applications聽from 2011 to 2015 include women.
When it comes to research and invention, 糖心传媒渢here are lots of great questions,糖心传媒� says Lisa Beck, an internationally recognized expert in atopic dermatitis. 糖心传媒淏ut not all of them have answers.糖心传媒�
And even when those questions do have answers, those answers may be lurking in unexpected places.
For example, atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema, is a chronic skin disease that causes unsightly lesions, profound itching, and outright misery for up to 20 percent of children and 9 percent of adults.
There is no known cure. However, discovered a defective protein that appears to be responsible for creating the 糖心传媒渓eaky糖心传媒� skin that causes the condition.
What糖心传媒檚 leaky skin? It occurs when 糖心传媒渨ater comes out, which makes the skin dry, and allergens, microbes, and irritants get in and cause the characteristic inflammation of the disease,糖心传媒� says Beck, a Dean糖心传媒檚 Professor of Dermatology. 糖心传媒淎nd it makes you very allergy prone.糖心传媒�
Her discovery of the defective protein may eventually lead to new ways to treat atopic dermatitis. But in the meantime, Beck and her collaborators糖心传媒擝en Miller, also a professor of dermatology, and Anna De Benedetto, formerly at Rochester, now associate professor of dermatology at the University of Florida糖心传媒攈ave found a peptide that can temporarily 糖心传媒渞ecreate糖心传媒� the same effect of having a faulty protein in healthy people as well.
That may not seem particularly helpful at first glance. But applied as part of a small wearable patch, the peptide can temporarily create temporary 糖心传媒渓eaks糖心传媒� in a very localized area of healthy skin. In doing so, it creates a perfect portal for vaccinating people or as an alternative route for drug delivery.
A winding route to dermatology
Beck糖心传媒檚 first research project糖心传媒攆or AP biology in high school糖心传媒攖ook place in the basement of her family糖心传媒檚 home in Portville, New York.
The small town 糖心传媒渉as one stoplight,糖心传媒� says Beck. Her high school graduating class numbered just over 90, and just under half of the students went directly to college.
糖心传媒淎nd yet, we had national merit scholar finalists, so it was really one of those amazing public schools,糖心传媒� she says. Two of her teachers, one in biology, the other in math, 糖心传媒渨ere pretty seminal in my education. To this day, they remain some of my best teachers.糖心传媒�
Education 糖心传媒渨as extremely important糖心传媒� to her father, a dermatologist, and her mother, who headed the medical social work department at a nearby hospital. Her father, in fact, was her first 糖心传媒渃ollaborator糖心传媒� on that high school science project, and they also worked together on multiple carpentry and plumbing projects around the house.
She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, the elite liberal arts college for women, with a degree in chemistry. But not before spending her junior year at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. She wanted to experience the atmosphere of a big university with a Division I sports program.
After watching Ralph Sampson, the celebrated 7-foot-4 center, play there, she became a lifelong fan of ACC basketball.
More importantly, she aced her classes.
糖心传媒淚 wanted the guys to know 糖心传媒業糖心传媒檓 a woman in STEM, and I can do physical chemistry just as well as you can,糖心传媒櫶切拇綕 Beck says.
Her sights were set on going to medical school and becoming a general internist. However, by her second year of medical school at SUNY糖心传媒揝tony Brook, Beck was seriously questioning if she had made the right career choice.
糖心传媒淚t was like feeding from a firehose糖心传媒攖he amount of information and facts they give you in the first two years of medical school糖心传媒攁nd they never ask you to use those facts to help solve complex problems, which was what I had been trained to do at Mount Holyoke,糖心传媒� Beck says.
She decided to complete medical school, and came to Rochester for her internship and residency in the mid-1980s. Because there were so few critical care nursing home facilities at that time, hospitals cared for large numbers of terminally-ill, elderly patients. Many of those patients had dementia and would likely be in nursing facilities today.
To Beck, the situation presented a moral dilemma. 糖心传媒淪hould we be as aggressive working up a fever spike in a noncommunicative, 90-year-old woman, as we would do for a 20-year-old?糖心传媒� she asks. 糖心传媒淓specially when that workup included invasive and painful procedures like a lumbar puncture, tons of bloodwork, a chest x-ray, and urine culture. It felt like we were doing more harm than good.糖心传媒�
Career changing advice
As chance would have it, the acting chair of medicine that Beck turned to for advice was Lowell Goldsmith, founder of the and a 糖心传媒済iant糖心传媒� in the field.
糖心传媒淚 had always teased my dad that a dermatologist wasn糖心传媒檛 a 糖心传媒榬eal糖心传媒� doctor,糖心传媒� Beck says. 糖心传媒淏ecause I really thought糖心传媒攁nd still believe糖心传媒攖hat the internists and pediatricians and family practitioners are the real unsung heroes in health care.糖心传媒�
But after talking with Goldsmith, Beck became convinced that she would be happier pursuing a career in dermatology, where the diagnoses rely on careful histories and physical exams.
She moved to Duke to complete a residency in the field糖心传媒攖aking full of advantage of the free tickets available to dermatology residents to watch home games of the highly ranked Duke basketball team in Cameron stadium.
Beck then took her first faculty position at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She solidified her clinical knowledge as head of dermatology at the university糖心传媒檚 Bayview campus. But she spent most of her 17 years at Hopkins in the Division of Allergy, learning what it takes to be a skilled researcher from some of the best in their field.
糖心传媒淎t that point, the allergy division at Johns Hopkins was the largest in the world,糖心传媒� Beck says.
糖心传媒淲e had many weekly conferences, and that糖心传媒檚 when I learned that you go to every research meeting, whether or not it has anything to do with what you糖心传媒檙e working on, because that糖心传媒檚 where you get creative new ideas.糖心传媒�
She also learned the importance of feedback from peers糖心传媒攈owever stinging it might feel at the time.
糖心传媒淵ou would be criticized quite robustly by your peers there, because the feeling was, 糖心传媒榠f we糖心传媒檙e hard on you, when you糖心传媒檙e ready to go out and present your work to the world, you糖心传媒檒l already have addressed the weaknesses.糖心传媒櫶切拇綕
A skin patch with global applications
And now Beck is back at Rochester.
The skin patch she developed with Miller and De Benedetto to deliver vaccines has worked in tissue cultures and in mice thanks to the hard work of Matt Brewer, a postdoc in the Miller and Beck labs.
糖心传媒淎nd the beauty of it is, when you remove the patch after 24 hours, the skin barrier recovers very nicely,糖心传媒� she says.
The novel technology could make it much easier to vaccinate entire populations in hard-pressed developing countries against yellow fever, malaria, West Nile, Zika, and Chikungunya.
Think of it: vaccination without the burden of hypodermics, which are painful, require expensive biohazard disposal, and highly trained health care workers.
Patents are now pending in the US and overseas.
Not bad for someone who worried in medical school that she 糖心传媒渨asn糖心传媒檛 helping anyone.糖心传媒� Now, Beck has come up with a technology that could help people on a global scale.
